The Concept of Love
by Hannaji
Summary: When Yoyo went missing, both Beat and Rhyth were hit hard. What kind of thoughts are going through their minds as they continually come closer to finding their missing member?
1. Chapter 1

_**Description: When Yoyo went missing, both Beat and Rhyth were hit hard. What kind of thoughts are going through their minds as they continually come closer to finding their missing member?**_

_**Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Family**_

_**Includes: Mention of a Fan Character, Rhyth/Yoyo pairing, and plenty of fanverse.**_

_**Warnings: None **_

* * *

><p><strong>The Concept of Love<strong>

**Chapter 1 :: YOYO **

The last thing he remembered was getting caught. Why he thought going after the new "cops" in town by himself was a good idea, he didn't remember. But he knew he made a big mistake, the biggest one of his life.

Everything was bright, too bright for him. He covered his eyes with his hand and noticed his glasses were missing.

"Great," he mumbled, searching the floor for his red rimmed sunglasses. Without them he felt weak - no one in the GGs knew he couldn't see without them, except maybe Beat.

Beat... That's why. He went after the cops to impress Beat.

The memory played back to him like an old grainy film: One of his friends from another gang had heard a rumour about some new cops in town and that they were Rokkaku's "special police". They were equipped with all the latest technology and had the ability to blend in with everyone. One had even managed to infiltrate the streets and get in with one of the gangs.

Who was it?

No one knew for sure.

He was going to find out.

His plan was simple: Find the traitor. Expose the new police. Beat would no longer consider him weak. They could go back to old times, and they wouldn't need to hide their relationship anymore.

But that all backfired as soon as he got caught.

How?

He couldn't remember.

He was snapped back into the present as he felt himself falling off an edge. What stopped him from plummeting who knows how far was his face being planted into a pole. He shuffled back, clutching his nose to stop the bleeding caused by the impact.

A pole? No, bars, like the ones found on a jail cell. But the edge...

A cage. He was in a cage. Trapped like an animal. Put on display for everyone to know what an idiot he was, and how weak and useless he truly was.

"Go ahead. See if I care," he spoke to anyone who could possibly hear, but he knew that he did. Like he was going to show that to the world. He had gotten good at hiding the truth, at telling lies. No one could tell if he was lying or not: he was infamous for his silver tongue. He had to, for his sake and for Beat's too. He had to convince everyone that Beat was just another punk on the street, not nearly as close to him as he was. He even had to convince himself most of the time. It hurt, but it was for the best or something like that. Beat's words, not his.

The bleeding finally stopped, but his head was fuzzy from the loss. The world continued blending into various shades of orange.

Orange... Sunset. He was in Kogane-cho. But where? He could be anywhere and no one would be able to find him, because everything there looked the same. Rokkaku-Dai, Kibogaoka, all of Kogane-cho were residential zones famous for their beautiful sunsets, the endless reaches of houses, and water hazards.

Where the hell was he?

He was in deep. Were they looking for him? Was he even worth it? To the GGs, he was the newbie who couldn't really be trusted on his own. While the others travelled by themselves, he always had someone to back him up, usually Rhyth since meeting her in Rokkaku-Dai Heights... She was great, always willing to go out with him when no one else would...

Was she looking? Did she feel the same way as he did? If anyone could find him, it would be her: Kogane-cho was her turf after all!

Maybe she was there right now! It was at least worth a shot.

"Rhyth!" he yelled out, only to be greeted with a thousand echoes of his own voice shouting her name.

What the hell? That shouldn't have happened... Unless he was in an enclosed space... No way. They couldn't have taken him there of all places...

The Fortified Residential Zone.

When you got into the sewers, you could go one of four ways: deeper into Poison Jam territory, Rokkaku-Dai Heights, Kibogaoka Hill, or the FRZ. No one really wanted to go there because the "Zone" was cut off from the rest of Tokyo-to, and the protesters were getting rough with the cops. It became "fortified" with the insane amount of cops on duty and rumours of military presence were enough to keep everyone away. Even tough-guy Garam refused to enter the Zone.

Pieces started connecting like a puzzle: himself, the cage, the FRZ...

Because of his stupidity, he was going to get the GGs killed. Simple as that.

Now he wished they wouldn't find him, that they would leave him to die, make him pay for his recklessness. He didn't mean for this to happen, it just did! He didn't want Beat to get hurt, or Rhyth either. He didn't want the GGs to be destroyed, they were his family!

Family... There was a word he hadn't used in years. Not since he joined the Original GGs.

He was only 15 at the time, but he was one of the best taggers on the streets. A friend had told him about a gang called the GGs run by some runaway redhead, and that was all he needed to hear before running off. In Tokyo-to, there weren't too many redheads running around, much less anyone running the GGs. That was the name of the gang he and his brother were going to run before he was taken away. He finally found them and challenged them to a game, his best game. He didn't know the name of it, but he knew the rules off by heart. First one to tag the designated spot wins.

He lost, but they were so impressed that they let him join. He was ecstatic, expecting to see his brother at last.

But all he found was Beat.

Beat is not his brother, he had to remind himself. Beat is just another punk on the street.

They both had red hair, they both had the same blood type, they both had the same mother, they both grew up in Hokkaido together, they both saw their mother being arrested, they both ran away to Tokyo-to together, they both met that sad little girl without a family on the train, they both took her in, they both raised her, they both decided to start a gang, they both agreed on naming it the GGs, they both laughed at their craziness, they both cried when their mother was thrown in jail, when that little girl was taken away, when they were separated...

But none of that mattered, because Beat was just another punk on the street. Beat was not his brother.

Before he died, he wanted one thing. Just one.

He just wanted to see his brother one more time.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Concept of Love**

**Chapter 2 :: BEAT**

Everything went downhill as soon as Yoyo went missing. He was the first one to return from tagging that day when he noticed Potts examining something. That's when he saw Yoyo's red-rimmed sunglasses and knew something had happened to the young Rudie. He knew that the lime-head couldn't see without them, yet he had never admitted that to anyone.

And then the Immortals showed up. They weren't happy when the GGs decided to take over their territory and even less happy when he used their corpses as a canvas. They fled to Highway Zero and that's when he found Yoyo trapped in a cage and freaking out. Those losers were planning on using him in some ritual, like he was going to let them! He beat them again and attempted to free the boy, only to fall into a trap. Now he was the one behind bars and freaking out.

He remembered that kid looking right into his eyes, laughing like an idiot. But something wasn't right about him. His hood was up, and his eyes... They looked too dark behind his glasses. Wait, when did he pick up another pair of glasses?

They dragged him off to the Rokkaku Stadium, where he met another Rudie who would end up his partner by force. The Noise Tanks forced the two to do countless rounds of Death Ball - a brutal game where the punishment of losing involved losing your soul to that traitor.

Of course, the cops showed up and ruined everything. Yoyo and his new "friends" ran off without a trace. They only showed up when a Poison Jam member got his ass handed to him when he accidentally ran into them. Now that didn't sound right - when did Yoyo get so strong?

He and his two closest friends, Gum and Corn, followed Poison Jam's directions and cornered Yoyo and his two Noise Tank friends at Sky Dinosaurian Square. He was ready to pound that traitor to the ground and knock some sense back into him. The Tanks must've grabbed him and brainwashed him, like they did to Potts a few years earlier, as a warning or something. Something was not right with Yoyo.

But Cube showed up and revealed Yoyo was just another Noise Tank.

That wasn't right. Yoyo was a human being, not some machine. He knew this best.

They forced the Tanks to give up everything they knew, but they self-destructed before that could happen.

He was back to Square One.

The next thing that happened was Clutch, and he was going to pay for it. Not only did he have the nerve to steal the GGs' graffiti souls, he took the ones Yoyo collected! And then he decided to run off to Kibogaoka Hill like the coward he was. He wasn't going to let the bastard get away with it.

He was halfway to Kibogaoka Hill when his radio started broadcasting again. The voice of the all-knowing DJ Professor K came over the airwaves and startled him with some new information about the whereabouts of Clutch.

"Seems like this time, the elusive Clutch is kickin' it over in the skyscraper district."

How the hell did he get there so fast?

It didn't matter much. He was going to catch him. He made an emergency U-turn and nearly ran into two other GGs that not only followed him, but managed to keep up.

"Outta my way!" he screamed at Gum and Corn. He was on a mission and would allow no one to get in his way.

"You're on a wild goose chase! You won't catch him this way!" Gum yelled back, trying once again to keep up with him.

This news also startled him. Why did everyone know so much about Clutch? Hell, why did everyone else know more than him? It wasn't right for him to be kept in the dark.

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath and to hear his friend out. She was also tired but managed to say what she need to say.

"Clutch... will only go to three places... and stays there for only a while... You gotta stay in one place and wait for him!"

Yeah, that sounded smarter than his current plan of chasing him around Tokyo-to, but he wasn't going to admit that. Most of his pride had been shattered the moment he noticed Yoyo was gone, and he wasn't gonna let anyone take what was left.

"Well, what are we waiting for! He'll hit Kibogaoka again, right? Let's go there!"

Corn looked at his watch and shook his head. "It'll be faster if we head him off at Chuo Street. We've got five minutes."

Wasting energy to get to the other side of town? His reasoning must be damn good.

"I know you think I'm an idiot," Corn read his mind, "but I know where Clutch hangs. He'll be by the Record Store in front of Godzilla."

Godzilla: the name Yoyo gave that dinosaur statue on Chuo Street.

Everything ended up coming back to Yoyo.

A memory came to him of a time long ago. There was him as an 8 year old, a little brunette girl of 5 years, and another redheaded boy, only a year older than the girl.

"Brother!" the young boy called out, pointing to a billboard covered in graffiti. "Those are good tags, yo!"

"Yeah," the younger him agreed, "but not as good as ours! When we are the GGs we'll..."

No, block out that memory. That wasn't him. He was Beat, he had no family.

Corn looked at him with concern on his face. He shoved it off and pushed up his glasses to hide the tears that had formed in his eyes.

"Let's go."

The continued on their way, rerouting towards Chuo Street. The entire time, he could not stop thinking about Yoyo.

I stopped being your brother a long time ago, he thought. I wanted to protect you, but I've failed miserably.

I failed to protect mom when she was arrested. I failed to protect all of us when we were forced into that hell hole. I failed to protect that girl when she was taken away from us. I failed to protect us when we were dragged into two separate lives. I failed to even protect my own dog from the Noise Tanks! And now I failed to protect you again.

Everything I did was for nothing, because I failed to do my job as your brother. Can you even call me your brother?

When I find you, I have one hope. Just one.

I just hope you have it in you to forgive me for all this.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Concept of Love**

**Chapter 3 :: RHYTH **

She knew as soon as Clutch showed up that he was no good. She had a talent of determining one's personality just by looking at them. Her talent had never let her down before, and it continued on like that.

Beat had chased after Clutch like a bloodhound, determined to get back those Graffiti Souls that the jerk ran off with. Gum and Corn gave chase, but who knows if they would be able to keep up. Beat wasn't the fastest skater, and yet he had managed to take off like a rocket. Yoyo's disappearance was effecting them all, whether they admitted it or not.

Yoyo may have felt under-appreciated , but everyone thought of him like the annoying little brother of the group... Actually, he was the annoying little brother of the group. That made him special. Everyone wanted what was best for him even if he didn't think so, which was all the time.

Now that she really thought of it, Yoyo probably went out to prove himself, but it went wrong. She didn't deny that she was worried, but she didn't want to admit it either. She tried to continue like nothing had happened, but even the newcomers knew that something was missing.

She soon found herself sitting on top of the speakers for the first time in years. It wasn't the highest place in the Garage, but it gave her a decent view of the place. She saw Potts by his little "pad", waiting for his master to come home. Below the platform that Roboy and Corn hung out was her usual hiding place, along with Combo and a few others whose names she hadn't quite learned yet. She spent so much time with Yoyo that she didn't know just how large the GGs had grown in number. Their numbers had now grown to about a dozen members, give or take. Much larger than the original GGs for sure.

The Original GGs... What a memory.

She had first met Yoyo two years ago, when he was fifteen. He had shown up at the Garage like she and everyone else had, and challenged them. Everyone was iffy about letting the cocky redhead join, but they decided to humor him and decided to take him up on his challenge. Tab was the one to take him on.

She was chosen to mark the spot, and waited patiently as the two raced to find her and tag the spot. She heard skates grinding on rails and expected to see Tab coming around the bend.

But it was Yoyo!

She saw his determination, his drive to win. This wasn't just a race for him, it was life or death... Maybe not that extreme.

This was it, he was going to win!

He jumped the rail, flew to the rooftop...

Caught his foot in the rail, and face-planted.

Tab came around, made the jump flawlessly, and made the tag.

Yoyo had lost the race.

But not the war.

Everyone agreed that he was worth keeping around, so he became a member. She remembered his big, cheesy grin and his crazy victory dance. She didn't know the reason for his antics, but it must've been for a good reason.

Two years later, also known as a short while ago in the present time, she had met Yoyo again at Rokkaku-Dai Heights. He was dealing with Poison Jam's graffiti when she showed up. He noticed her, and she decided to have a little fun with him. She would run, he would chase, repeat. They had been all over Rokkaku-Dai before she decided to join up with him and the newly formed GGs, a move she didn't regret for even a moment.

She didn't know how long she had dozed off for, but she was woken by Beat's proclamation:

"I'm going to bring Yoyo back, with or without help!"

Corn and Beat were in a heated argument, and Clutch was with them, trying to stay out of their way.

"Like hell I'm gonna go to the Residential Zone!" Corn retaliated. "You know the shit that's going down there. You're walking into another trap!"

Did she hear that right? Yoyo's at the Fortified Residential Zone? That's bad. The stories from out there had even the most hardcore Rudies terrified of getting within a hundred kilometers of the place.

Beat couldn't go there on his own, or alone with Clutch.

"Hey, let me help!" she called out.

Of course everyone looked at her like she was an idiot, but Beat looked a little less tense knowing he wouldn't be on his own for this rescue mission. He had backup this time if something went wrong.

It was decided that Beat, Clutch and Rhyth would go to rescue Yoyo, If Clutch's information was right. The three went through Rokkaku-Dai to the sewers, and came face to face with the entrance to the Fortified Residential Zone.

"Last chance to back out," Clutch stated, "I have no idea what's waiting on the other side."

Rhyth could tell Clutch was nervous, and who could blame him? Her stomach was doing summersaults as her imagination ran at millions of miles a second.

Beat was the only cool one of the trio. He looked a little more like what Rhyth remembered him to be, but his cockiness was nowhere to be found. This was a serious situation.

"I'm going in," Beat declared, skating down the endless pipe that lead up to the FRZ. Clutch sighed and followed, and then she went.

It seemed like forever to reach the end. The entire time she prayed that this would be the end of their search, but they were not that lucky.

As soon as she stepped out of the sewer, an electrified police fence dropped in front of the only entrance... And exit.

It was a trap.

"Soon, when the timer runs out, this building will go... Kaboom!" A pre-recorded tape started playing. "Hahahaha, fools! You continue to cling to the sad notions of "camaraderie" and "friendship". And because of it, your pitiful little lives will end in a grand display of fireworks!"

Yoyo was there. She knew it.

She just prayed they would be able to get out of this mess in one piece.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Concept of Love**

**Chapter 4 :: YOYO part 2**

It was just another day. He was only six years old at the time, but he already knew how to survive on the streets of his childhood home in Hokkaido. He and his brother, Seiji, were downtown when they should have been in school like the other children. That wasn't an option for them though, because technically they didn't exist. Obviously they did, but their mother had to disappear due to a mistake that she had made before his older brother was born. They had never asked, because they were so young. The streets became their life.

They spent the day finding their next meal, trading at the pawn shops, and occasionally dodging cops. It was their daily routine. The sun started setting, so they began on their way home.

Their home was an old rundown apartment on the edge of town, but they didn't live there, Uncle Ken did. They didn't exist.

When they got there, the first thing they saw were the cop cars. They didn't see cops, so the two snuck into the alley and behind a dumpster. They stayed there all night by accident, because they had both fallen asleep. They were woken up early in the morning by Uncle Ken. He had two backpacks with him.

"Here, take these and get out of town. Go, now!"

They had a million questions, but in unison they asked the number one question on their mind:

"Where's mom?"

Uncle just shook his head and shooed them off like pests.

The day that their mom had trained them for had finally come. Her past had caught up to her, and now they were on their own. It was them against the world.

They took the bags and headed to a nearby train station. They wanted to ask more questions, but they knew better than that.

They manage to get onto the train without incident. That's when he met her.

She was a sad little girl who reminded him of himself. She looked to be in the same boat as he and his brother had gotten into. No family and no future. She also had reddish hair - not as dominant as his or Seiji's, but still there.

He decided to approach her.

"You don't have a family either, don'cha?"

She looked at him with sadness and confusion, knowing he was right but not knowing how he was right. She could only nod her head.

"Hey, don't be so down, I don't really have on either!" he tried to cheer her up. It didn't work.

He decided to try another approach, "Why don't you join my family? I'm sure my big brother won't mind!"

She stared at him like he was an idiot. He just didn't want to see her sad, because it made him remember and feel sad too.

"Come on," he grabbed her hand and lead her towards his seat, "Let's go see Seiji!"

And then he woke up.

His body was stiff and his throat was dry. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't even think straight. He lost count of how many days it had been, but he knew the end was coming soon. A human could last no more than seven days without water, and thirty without food. He had neither since he first found himself in the cage.

He closed his itchy eyes and drifted back off to a semi-concious state. Another memory played in his mind's eyes.

He was now eight years old again, Seiji was twelve, and the girl that they had named "Cho" was seven. They were out around Kogane-cho, watching one of its famous sunsets. Cho was carrying a book on astrology she had swiped from the orphanage's library. Her smile was beaming and her excitement was barely contained.

"It's gonna be great!" she yelped.

"Yeah, great," he rolled his eyes, "We'll be watching rocks fall from the sky. Big whoop."

Seiji smacked him on the back of the head.

"Shut up" was all the older boy said.

The sun dipped below the waterline, and the sky slowly turned dark. Cho pointed out the first "shooting star" and had told them to make a wish. He had said that it was dumb and got smacked by his brother again. It wasn't an uncommon thing, but he was a lot rougher than usual.

The next day, he knew why.

"Yoshiro, I'm not your sister anymore," Cho told him that morning. "I have a new family now: a mommy, a daddy and a little brother too."

No Cho! He wanted to scream. I'm your brother, we're your family!

Seiji held him tightly as the man took her hand and lead her out the doors of the hellhole they called home for two years. He thrashed and fought bitterly, hit and kicked his brother, but Seiji held tight and took it.

Cho was gone. Seiji was all he had left.

He drifted back to consciousness again. His chest hurt, his head hurt. He wanted to cry, but couldn't. He was dry - not a single drop of liquid remained in his body.

He shut his eyes again, welcoming the blackness, but another memory greeted him in full color.

Another year passed. He had been out all day with another one of the orphans from the hellhole. Seiji wasn't there when he returned. He looked everywhere where he would normally find him - the library, the cafeteria, the playground, their room - but he had disappeared.

A worker finally approached him after hours of searching and asking. She put everything bluntly:

"He's been adopted."

It was official, he was now alone. Mom, Cho and Seiji were all gone. No family, no future.

He ran away many times after that, but he always ended up back there. He bounced around a couple of homes, but no one wanted the rambunctious boy. He was always causing trouble with his actions or his words. He was a daredevil and his tongue was made of pure silver. He loved to skate and marked his territory with paint.

He was a Rudie. The streets were his life.

At fifteen, he joined the GGs, hoping that Seiji had made good on their promise to create a gang and call it the "Graffiti Gang" like they agreed years ago. He hoped that Cho had found her way to the streets of Tokyo-to again, and would be there too.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

All there was, was Beat. Seiji and Cho were nowhere to be found.

"Soon, when the timer runs out, this building will go... Kaboom!"

Wait a minute, this wasn't a memory. This was a tape recording.

"Hahahaha, fools! You continue to cling to the sad notions of "camaraderie" and "friendship"."

Shit, they found him.

"And because of it, your pitiful little lives will end in a grand display of fireworks!"

He was going to be the destruction of the GGs.


	5. Chapter 5

**The Concept of Love**

**Chapter 5 :: BEAT part 2**

Another trap! He had fallen face-first into yet another trap!

"You bastard!" he lunged at Clutch, tackling him to the ground. He had dragged them to their death like a damn suicide bomber!

"Hold on man," Clutch pleaded, "your friend is here! I told you I didn't know what to expect!"

He didn't care. He wanted to pound his face. He raised his fist to strike, but was held back.

It was Rhyth.

"We don't have time for this!" she exclaimed. "We've got time, so let's use it!"

Dammit, she was right. He was losing his cool to the point that he wasn't thinking straight. Yoyo should've been his first priority, not that bastard called Clutch.

He picked himself and attempted to formulate a plan. Running was not an option - not only were they trapped, he refused to leave the youngest Rudie behind.

He had to protect not just Yoyo, but Yoshiro as well. He had to be Seiji again, the older brother and protector.

He wanted to reflect on how long it had been since he heard those names, but there was no time. The guys who got Yoyo were planning on turning them into a New Year's celebration.

News flash, idiots: it's the middle of a hot-as-hell summer. It was a little early for the big kabooms.

In his moment of returning to his cocky self, Clutch had discovered their way out of their predicament.

"Spray any blue device you can find! It'll short out and stop the timer!" Clutch had told them.

"How much time do we have left?" Rhyth had to ask.

"Twenty minutes, give or take."

They all immediately went into overdrive, going anywhere a device could've been hidden. Four were in plain sight on the ground floor, but when the timer kept counting down even after taking them out they knew there were more to find.

Only ten minutes to go, and the timer still hadn't quit.

There had to be at least one more. They had found and taken out seven. Damn, how many more? Where could they look? Where hadn't they looked?

And then he found another fence. No, the last switch couldn't be on the other side? There was no way around it. What the hell was going on?

He took a moment to think about everything that he had done to deserve this.

He thought about all the many things he had stolen to feed, clothe and support his family. He thought of all the times he ran from the cops when he got caught. What he did was wrong but necessary to keep them alive.

He thought about how he had kept Cho's adoption a secret from Yoshiro. He thought about the time he was adopted. He didn't fight to keep them together.

He thought about the creation of his gang. He thought about how he refused to get Yoyo involved. He thought about how hard he had tried to keep him from joining and staying.

He had a chance to bring his family back together, but he didn't take it. Why? Because he didn't want the truth about him to hurt his family. He became who he was today to run away from his past, but it hadn't worked.

He deserved what was coming, but Yoyo didn't. Rhyth and Clutch also had no involvement in this mess.

Five minutes. He had to find it.

He wanted to turn around and come back the way he came, but had decided to take a quick look around. Lo and behold, the last blue device was right next to him the entire god-forsaken time!

"I'm a blind idiot," he muttered, sloppily tagging the final device.

Another tape started playing from above.

"If you are hearing this tape, that means you have somehow managed to deactivate all of the blue devices. How interesting. Let's see how well you fare a second time."

What the hell kind of test from hell was this? It didn't make sense to him, not like much did after the original run-in with the Rokkaku Group a few years prior... NO time to think about that! Yoyo was another step closer.

Rhyth and Clutch caught up with him, so they continued on their way. The fence had mysteriously disappeared, so they assumed that was where they needed to head next.

This time, the devices were red. They were just as easily taken out by a single can of paint, but their locations were difficult o get to. Complex tricks, far jumps and crazy amounts of boost dash were the requirements to reach some of the highest devices.

There were also "cops" in black armor that were definitely not your everyday, run of the mill cops. They needed to be knocked down via boost dash, and required much more paint to be taken out. He had found out the hard way that they were robots like the Noise Tanks and not human in any form when they shorted out and blew up in his face. He had then remembered to keep his distance, but was forced to take them and their machine guns out to continue on his way. It was a smart decision, because Clutch discovered that they also controlled the timers remotely. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and paint to take them down.

But when the second timer was stopped in just the nick of time, they all knew it was worth it. No more tapes played for them.

Instead, they were greeted by music coming from their wrist-radios and the familiar voice of the all-knowing DJ Professor K.

"There you go! You stopped the timer!

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Wooo! Man oh man, I was sweating bricks over here!

How nice, the Professor was concerned for them. Why hadn t he helped the out then? That was a dumb question, because if their radios were only blasting tunes now, that means that the signal had gotten blocked out by whoever set up this entire thing. He still wasn t thinking logically.

Now go save Yoyo!"

Of course. No one had to tell them twice.

"Your friend's at the top level," Clutch had told them. He and Rhyth rocketed off towards the roof while Clutch headed off to the Garage for backup or something. He honestly didn t give a crap.

Hold on Yoshiro, he prayed, I'm almost there.

Big brother Seiji is coming for you.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Concept of Love**

**Chapter 6 :: RHYTH 2**

The nightmare was nearly over, and yet her heart was still pounding. She, Beat and Clutch had disarmed both the blue and red devices, and taken out the new cops. Yet she knew it wouldn't be over until Yoyo was back safe and sound at the Garage.

Please let this not be another trap, she silently begged.

Getting to the top level was very difficult, to say the least. The rooftops they had to cross were very unstable and collapsed if you touched it. Only a few were solid and allowed safe passage to the other side. It took several tries of falling down a few floors before the correct path was revealed. They were so close!

Then they saw the cage, dangling just out of reach on a large chain connected to the ceiling. It looked like another trap - it was empty!

"Yoyo!" Rhyth called out the younger boy's name.

"Yo, where are you, kid?" Beat joined in. Everything was eerily silent for a moment before a weak groan responded. There was a slight movement in the cage before the lime-head sat himself up on his elbows. Yoyo was alive, but he looked bad.

His skin was cracking and pale, and his front was covered in dried blood. His face also looked bruised. What did they do to him? He didn't look a bit like his usual self, he looked helpless, beaten and weak.

She and Beat were both concerned for the boy's well-being. Beat was already underneath the hanging jail cell looking for a way to get Yoyo out.

"Yo, hold on!" Beat called out again, "I'm gonna get you outta there..."

Just then, the Rhinos showed up.

"Head's up, you've got Golden Rhinos incoming!" the Professor blasted from the radio, "Guess they didn't like you messing with the timers."

The helicopters... planes... hovercrafts... whatever they were, crashed through the sky dome and aimed right at them. She was the first one to see the missiles. Beat was so distracted and out of touch with the reality around them, like it was only him, Yoyo and the cage.

She intended to keep it that way. She would take care of the three Rhinos and keep them away from the two boys. Beat could - no, he would - get Yoyo out of his mess. They'll patch him up, and everything will return to normal...

She took a can out of her dwindling arsenal, ready for action.

"Come at me. I'm ready for you," she mumbled under her breath but directed at the Rhinos.

They closed in towards the platform she was on, firing missiles every so often as well. They were fast, but she was faster than that. She dodged the missiles as they blew up shortly before hitting the ground, preventing damage to the platform.

The air fleet was soon hovering over the platform, making it much easier to counter-attack. The first one was down in a matter of seconds as she got on its nose and clouded its vision with paint. It wasn't long after she hopped off that the plane exploded for whatever reason in midair, which she found odd. She didn't think about it long before finding a piece of roof to use as a ramp to jump onto another one of the planes.

Jump on, paint, jump off, repeat. Run from missiles if necessary. Watching explosion optional.

Finally, it was one on one. She had only three cans left, and she had to make them count. Failure was not an option.

She sped towards the ramp at top speed and launched herself off towards the remainder of the fleet. Executing a perfect landing, she let loose the paint, partially blinding the pilot. The can emptied, so she jumped off. The Rhino countered with a couple of missiles, but both missed their mark as they exploded in midair. Once more she rocketed off the ramp, landing and totally obstructing the craft's view. She hurriedly got off before the imminent explosion.

But the Rhino was determined. With what little time he head left, he fired the remainder of his missiles in various directions. Many detonated without any harm done. However, she had turned around just in time to see one head towards the hanging jail cell where Yoyo was being kept and Beat was trying to free the younger boy.

It hit dead on.

The first thought through her head was Yoyo. She thought about their first meeting in Benten-cho, when he was so determined to win that race. She thought about the countless times she and him had gone out about the town, coating it in their special graffiti. She thought about how she could see right through the boy like he was glass. She thought about how she had never admitted to anyone, not even herself, how much she had fallen in love with Yoyo, the young silver-tongued Rudie.

As those thoughts flashed through her mind, she rushed towards the smoking cage. It began to clear as she approached it, revealing Beat lying on the ground, possibly unconscious. Possibly dead.

"Beat!" she cried out as she collapsed beside him and pushed him onto his back. The first thing she saw was that his glasses were wrecked - the blast or the fall had shattered the blue lenses. She examined his body for injuries, but he looked more like he had been in a fight with the normal cops than being blown up with a Golden Rhino missile. It was very odd and didn't make sense.

The redhead soon returned to his senses, opening his brown eyes and focusing them on her. He soon looked past her at the cage and flew into a panic.

"Yoshiro!" Beat screamed, holding his ribs and taking short painful breaths. He must've broken a few ribs, she thought.

Then another thought entered her mind.

Yoshiro? Was that Yoyo's real name? Why did Beat know it?

Not the time for questions.

The blast had blown off half of the cage's bars. The bottom was low enough for her to touch, but to get inside to check on the condition of the boy was going to require a lot of energy she no longer had. But she had to. And she did just that.

Once she had pulled herself in, she saw the lime-head knocked onto his back. He looked even worst that before, with fresh shrapnel wounds and his clothes being torn.

She crawled over to him, lacking the energy to stand. But she did have enough in her to hold him in her arms and cry.

"I'm so sorry Yoyo. Don't leave me."

She whispered in his ear...

"I haven't been able to tell you that I love you yet."


	7. Chapter 7

**The Concept of Love**

**Chapter 7 :: AFTERMATH**

Every GG had seen the explosion and came rushing to the scene. Clutch had returned to the Garage for backup, and both Rhyth and Beat were relieved. Yoyo was still breathing, he still had a pulse, but holding him felt like he was dead - his body was ice cold and dry.

A few days passed. Between the entire Garage, they knew enough to nurse the young Rudie back to decent health. Yoyo could sit up, drink and eat on his own (not much, but it was better than nothing), and he was beginning to talk. Every GG wanted to know what happened to him, how he got so bad, but knew better than to bombard him with questions as soon as he woke up.

The entire time Beat remained by his side, refusing to let the youngster out his sight for even a moment. He'd been through hell and back and was not about to let it all go to waste.

Rhyth also stayed close by and ran errands for the two, from gathering medical supplies at the Chuo Street Pharmacy to picking up supper from one of 99th Street's many restaurants.

The day Yoyo woke up, both Beat and Rhyth were there.

Beat was sitting on the edge of the bed sweeping Yoyo's bangs out of his face. He needed a hairdresser - his hair was getting long, and the green was growing out and fading, exposing the natural red. He remembered that the boy was born blond, but throughout the years it had become redder and redder. Just a few years ago it was orange, now it was closer to his own flaming head. He thought back to their childhood, the fun memories the two of them had with Cho. He was always short, but he used to be the stocky type. His body was beginning to thin out, and as much as Beat hated to admit it, the kid was growing. They may not share half of the same DNA, but did they look so much like each other. Every day it got harder and harder to hide their family secret. Maybe it would be better to tell the world and get it over with, but at the moment the truth would not only hurt the lime-head, it could possibly kill him. He sighed, hating himself and his masquerade, but promised himself to end it after the truth could no longer haunt him. At least in the secrecy of the Original Garage where Yoyo had been calling home since before the GG's first disbandment, he could be Seiji again. And the younger one could be Yoshiro. If only Cho were there...

"So, you two are brothers, ne?" Rhyth questioned the older redhead. He looked up at her with a look that couldn't decided if it was impressed, shocked or confused. The blue one could see through Yoyo, so it should had been no surprise that she saw through him too. However, he thought that he had hid it so well, even his best friends Corn and Gum had not been able to figure it out. With a loss for words, he simply nodded.

"You two look so much alike," she began her explaination, "I couldn't tell the first time, but I see it now - not just the red hair, but the sleeker body, and some of the more prominent facial features are beginning to come out."

She laughed.

"Who knows, by the end of the year, you two could probably pass for twins!"

So, they looked like each other. If she saw it, he worried about how many others saw the resemblance.

"You wanna know my biggest tip-off?"

He looked at her with a curious look.

"Your personalities! You guys are overconfident and cocky, and so determined to prove yourselves. It's the best part about you guys, and you show it off all the time. I've never seen anyone with more devotion than you guys."

"Huh," he pondered that thought. Many called them polar opposites, yet they shared a few key traits between them. How much more was shared between them?

A weak groan startled the two of them. Yoyo shuffled around, attempting to get confortable and alliviated the stiffness in his body. He opened his eyes but was greeted with bright lights and a blend of colors.

"Yo, don't even think about getting up," Beat scolded. The young one managed to locate the older one by his yellow shirt and noticed the blob of blue behind him.

"Beat? Rhyth? What happened?" he coughed out, his voice squeakier than usual.

"No, not Beat. It's Seiji, otouto."

Otouto... Little brother.

Seiji found him. How he wanted to leap out of that bed and embrace the warmth of the older boy, but the stiffness of laying there for who knows how long and all the injuries he obtained from the Rhinos left him unabled to move much. He struggled to get his hand out from the blanket and found his brother's hand. He gave a small squeeze which was returned.

Rhyth just smiled. The brothers were back together again.

A week later, Yoyo could walk around with help. He hung around the Garage while the others went out, learning the names of the new GG's in town and undergoing a special training regiment from Roboy that was designed by Corn, Beat and Garam, intended to get him back in shape in no time. It was working, but he would not be returning to the streets for a long time. But, he had other ways to help the GG's.

"You guys are probably wondering what happened to me, yo."

All the GG's looked at him with eagerness, wanting to hear this story since he got back. No one dared ask him.

"Well, I don't remember much, yo."

The general reaction was dissapointment mixed with the death glare.

"But, I can tell you why I got caught. I heard a rumor about Rokkaku's new group, yo! You gotta know this!"

Of course everyone wanted to hear this. It must've been good information if Yoyo nearly lost his life to it.

"'Kay, Rokkaku's hired these new guys, most of you know the Golden Rhinos, yo? They're back in town! They blend in with everything. Most are black coats, but the most dangerous ones are the ones who blend in - citizens, workers, even mascots, yo!"

This was good information.

"That's not the end of it, yo! There are these special guys... one has these long arms, artificial arms, yo. The other one is a Pyro, loves to burn stuff. That chick's crazier than the Love Shockers, yo. There was a third one..."

Every GG leaned in closer, not wanting to miss the big reveal.

"... Damn, I can't remember. They were impressive, yo. I didn't know about him until he caught me, yo."

This information was mildly disturbing. Yoyo was one of the fastest skaters, seconded only to Rapid 99 and Cube, and his ability to avoid the cops was second to none. Yet this one Rhino had managed to catch him. They must've been very fast or very clever to catch the young Rudie.

"And that's my story, yo."

After they learned this information everyone dispatched, with the radio blasting news of Golden Rhinos terrorizing the streets. The only ones left at the Garage were Yoyo, Beat, Rhyth, and of course the pup, Potts, and even good old Roboy. The bot decided to teach the dog to skate, so the three were left alone at the half-pipe.

"Wow," Rhyth started, "The Rhinos aren't your average cops. Wonder what happened to Hayashi?"

Beat laughed aloud, "Good riddance! The guy was losing his mind and his aim."

"Whatever," Yoyo sighed, "Maybe everyone will be able to do something about the Rhinos with what I found out. Not like I could do anything."

"Oh Yoyo, don't say such a thing!" Rhyth was ready to slap him. "You are very important! You found out a lot about the Rhinos that we never would have known about without you!"

"Yeah, and I got caught in the process. How weak is that?"

"Shut up! You are more important than you realize! You take care of Potts, you get along with everyone, and also keep them on their toes! Do you know how jealous everyone is of your tags? You're the best tagger in Tokyo. And let's not even get started on your trick records... Nobody can perform as many tricks as you in one run."

"That means nothing! I'm not a leader like Corn, I'm not strong like Garam, I'm not ripped like Combo, I'm not even a bit like BEAT!"

Yoyo huffed to catch his breath and regain his natural pasty color. The three stood in silence for a while.

Beat broke the silence.

"You're right, and you're wrong."

Before anyone could protest, he continued.

"Yeah, no one can lead a group like Corn. He's a much better leader than me. Garam... he's a freak of nature. How the hell he ever lifted those steel pipes is beyond me. Yeah, Combo's got his size, but he's slow and can't get past as many obsticles as the rest of us. And you're not like Beat."

He paused a moment, setting his gaze straight into Yoyo's eyes.

"But you are like Seiji. One day soon, everyone will be able to see that. Until then, I'm Beat, and you're Yoyo. You have your talents and uses, just learn to use them properly. Then the next time you run into problems, you'll get out of them."

Beat left before anything else could be exchanged. Rhyth remained behind with Yoyo.

"You know..." she began, trying to find the right way to say what she wanted to say, "You really are something special. Even if no one else in the world thinks that, remember that I will always think that, 'kay?"

He looked at her over the rim of his glasses, barely making out her features with his horrible natural eyesight. He felt his body temperature rising and cheeks flushing, so her pushed up his glasses.

"Yeah, whatever, yo."

But he knew it was true. He just couldn't find it in him to tell the truth to her yet, though. He would one day, but until then, he was fine with the way things were.


End file.
